Some manufacturing technologies use a printing process to deposit a layer of material on a substrate as part of an assembly process. For example, multiple solar panels or organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays can be manufactured together on a common glass or other substrate, with multiple panels eventually being cut from the common substrate to create respective devices. The printing process deposits liquid (e.g., similar to an “ink”) having a solvent that suspends or carries a material from which a respective permanent layer is formed, e.g., by curing, drying or otherwise “processing” the liquid to a permanent form. The liquid is deposited for each product in a manner that is carefully controlled, so that each deposited layer aligns closely in position with underlying layers and desired product position on the substrate. Such alignment is particularly important where a high degree manufacturing precision is required, as for example, where the process is used to fabricate a dense pattern of microelectronic structures or optical structures, with each layer of each structure having carefully-controlled dimensions (including thickness).
Returning to the OLED display example for purposes of illustration, each flat panel device being manufactured in parallel on a common substrate features individual pixel color components which are typically fabricated in fluidic wells that hold light generating elements and electrodes. Each deposited layer helps determine proper operation of the individual pixels; the more accurate (and the better aligned and controlled) each deposition process, the smaller the pixels can be made and the more reliable the operation of finished optical or electrical structure at its particular size dimensions. Variations for a given panel (including thickness variations) from pixel-to-pixel are undesired, as these can produce visible defects in the finished product; for example, a typical OLED display (for example, used as an HDTV screen) can involve many millions of pixels in a compact space, and if pixels have even slight variations in liquid deposited via the printing process, this can potentially be seen as a brightness or color difference by the human eye. For such manufacturing applications, precise printer control is therefore required, for example, at micron or finer resolution, and with a maximum variation in aggregate per-area fluid deposition volume of less than one-half-percent.
In addition, to produce products at an acceptable consumer price point, it is desired to maximize manufacturing throughput. If a given manufacturing device (e.g., including an industrial printer) takes substantial time for each layer, this translates to slower manufacture, and to an increased consumer price point; such increased price point threatens viability of the manufacturing process.
The subject matter defined by the enumerated claims may be better understood by referring to the following detailed description, which should be read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. This description of one or more particular embodiments, set out below to enable one to build and use various implementations of the technology set forth by the claims, is not intended to limit the enumerated claims, but to exemplify their application. Without limiting the foregoing, this disclosure provides several different examples of techniques used to fabricate a thin film for each of multiple products of a substrate (or other array of products) as part of an integral, repeatable print process. The various techniques can be embodied as software for performing these techniques, in the form of a computer, printer or other device running such software, in the form of control data (e.g., a print image) for forming such a film layer, as a deposition mechanism, or in the form of an electronic or other device fabricated as a result of these techniques (e.g., having one or more layers produced according to the described techniques). While specific examples are presented, the principles described herein may also be applied to other methods, devices and systems as well.